Talking Points: Hot, Hot, Hot

Well it is brutally hot in much of the USA and things are getting hot in the Bush household as well. That's the subject of this evening's Talking Points memo.

Rumors and tabloid reports are flying about the behavior of the Bush twins in Los Angeles and the press is caught in the middle.

Talk magazine fired the first shot satirizing the twins as party girls. That magazine is a left-leaning publication with no love for the Bush administration.

Now, more reports are coming up and some of them are scathing. Talking Points sees some hypocrisy here because Chelsea Clinton was left alone but there is no question that the Bush girls are far more flamboyant in their behavior than Chelsea was.

Apparently the Bush twins are fans of Cyndi Lauper, girls just wanna have fun.

The difficulty here is when fun spills over into the legal system. I sympathize with both the Bush family and the Clinton family ... because these young girls did not ask to be the daughters of powerful people who have powerful enemies.

Unlike most other American girls, Jenna, Barbara, and Chelsea are not free to make youthful mistakes without the whole nation knowing about it.

That being said, these young women do have a responsibility not to embarrass their families. They simply must obey the law even if many of their peers do not.

The media is not going to give these ladies a pass, if they get involved with substance abuse or if they hook up with questionable companions.

The wild card here is the Secret Service. What exactly are agents supposed to do if bad behavior occurs? Do they stop it? Do they intrude on private decisions made by the young women?

Points thinks they have to because in the case of the Bush girls, it is a national security question. The President will be extremely distracted by any scandal surrounding his daughters.

So the Secret Service has to protect the offspring of presidents not only from outside harm but also from themselves as well. It is has to done, even if girls just wanna have fun.

And that's the memo.

Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Time now for the "Most Ridiculous Item of the Day" which is more instructive than ridiculous.

Last night in our debate over whether or not the atomic bombs should have been dropped on Japan, historian Gar Alperovitz cited Dwight Eisenhower and some other generals who disagreed with President Truman's decision.

As promised, here are some of the notable military men who endorsed the bomb action.

General George Marshall, Secretary of Defense Henry Stimson, and General Leslie Groves, Director of the Manhattan project.

In addition, the majority of Pacific field commanders were in favor of the bomb because of the horrendous casualities an invasion of Japan would have caused.